-
Hostel (2006): C
Call me a sadist, but Hostel’s most egregious failing (of which there are many) is that it wants to be preeminent shock cinema, but doesn’t have the balls to fully follow through on its promise of unbridled carnage. Eli Roth’s banal follow-up to Cabin Fever spends its first half charting the ugly, arrogant behavior of…
-
Piranha (1978): B+
Of all the late ‘70s-early ‘80s Jaws knockoffs, none balanced tongue-in-cheek humor with out-and-out gore as deftly as Joe Dante’s Piranha, produced with the low-budget aid of legendary B-movie impresario Roger Corman. Scripted by John Sayles with a preference for knowing wink-wink jokes (such as the bookending sights of a Jaws videogame and a woman…
-
2006’s First Batch
Of reviews, that is. Below are links to my first write-ups of the year, including the latest from über-hack Uwe Boll. And check back later this week for a new site feature that, hopefully, will lead to as much discussion and debate as my Brokeback Mountain review. Out Now: BloodRayne (Slant magazine) On the Outs…
-
Published Film Reviews – 2006
12/22/06 – An Unreasonable Man (Slant magazine) 12/22/06 – Tears of the Black Tiger (Slant magazine) 12/22/06 – Penelope (Slant magazine) 12/22/06 – Puccini for Beginners (Slant magazine) 12/22/06 – Night at the Museum (Slant magazine) 12/15/06 – Rocky Balboa (Slant magazine) 12/15/06 – Matthew Barney: No Restraint (Slant magazine) 12/15/06 – Letters from Iwo…
-
Grandma’s Boy (2006): C
(Originally published by Cineman Syndicate) An Adam Sandler film minus Sandler himself, Grandma’s Boy is dumb, crude and sophomoric, the type of disposable entertainment aimed directly at teenagers who think nothing is quite as funny as a well-placed groin kick or the sight of little old ladies stoned out of their gourds. However, it’s also…
-
Q: The Winged Serpent (1982): B+
Larry Cohen’s maverick impulses were undiminished by the mainstream confines of Q: The Winged Serpent, a freewheeling homage to both King Kong and producer Samuel Z. Arkoff’s 1950s creature features that’s slyly infected with marrow-deep societal tensions. Small-time hood and recovering dope addict Jimmy (Michael Moriarty) flees from a diamond heist and into Manhattan’s Chrysler…
-
May (2002): B
A patchwork of Dario Argento, Claire Denis’ Trouble Every Day, and Mary Shelley, Lucky McKee’s May is all gouged eyes and severed limbs, cannibal love and stitched-together monstrosities. Forced by her mother to hide her lazy eye behind a pirate’s patch as a child, May (Angela Bettis) grew up an outcast whose only friend was…
-
The 2005 Final Tally
As this year’s narcissistic number-crunching exercise proves, 2005 turned out to be even busier than 2004. The results – broken down more simply than last year, simply because I don’t feel like nitpicking – are below: Published Print and Online Reviews (Film and DVD): 204 Site Reviews (Film and DVD): 145 2005 Theatrical vs. DVD…
-
Short Sundancing
My second article for The Independent is featured in this month’s January/February issue. It’s an inside look at the short film programmers at the Sundance Film Festival, and – at least for a limited time – an excerpt can be read at the below link. The Short Story at Sundance: Behind the Scenes with the…
-
2005’s Final Review
My last review of the year is here – a DVD review of Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s magnificent Café Lumière. Café Lumière – DVD (Slant magazine) Have a Happy New Year, and I’ll see you all in 2006.
